1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to teat cup carriers and more particularly to devices for carrying teat cups for use with feed platforms on which animals to be milked may be located.
2. Description of the Related Art
Teat cup carriers are known for use with movable feed platforms. In a known system a rotatable feed platform is provided with individual stalls, each containing a feed trough and teat cups. Beside the platform there is arranged a stationary teat-cup-connecting robot which is capable of connecting the teat cups to the teats of an animal that is present on the platform. Devices of this type are known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,508,058 and US A1 2002/0033138.
A drawback of the known systems is that the motion speed of the platform depends on the connection time required by the connecting robot or the farmer for connecting the teat cups. It may also occur that the teat cups cannot be connected in the connection area, so that the animal cannot be milked during its stay on the platform and has to board the platform again for being milked. This may adversely affect the milk yield as well as the animal health. Furthermore, an animal is restricted in where it can go to feed, both by the nature of the platform and by the fact that teat cup connection must take place in a specific area.
It is also known from FR-A-2,649,858 to dispose the sets of teat cups separately from the platform. The housing system as used in FR-A-2,649,858 is not explicitly described, but since the animals have to enter the circular platform from within the platform it is most likely that the animals have to be led from the outside of the platform towards the inside. In addition the assembly known from FR-A-2,649,858 also suffers from the disadvantage that a dairy animal is to be milked in a closed area, such as the stalls provided on the platform disclosed therein which limit the freedom of movement of a dairy animal to a high extent. Each stall is closed by two gates, so that this also restricts the free movement of animals since an animal has to board the platform at a specific position. Furthermore, dairy animals appear to experience walking to and boarding the platform as unpleasant and may therefore by very unwilling to be lead to the platform, which may result in problems to get an animal onto or from the platform, leading to insufficient occupation of the platform and thus reduced milk production. In addition the disclosed teat cup carriers are not freely movable with respect to the feed platform.
Movable teat cup carriers have been disclosed for use in conventional cowsheds. Such devices are however limited for operation in a fixed frame of reference. Examples of such devices are given in European patent applications EP-A-1,336,337, EP-A-1,188,366 and EP-A-1,188,367.